1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to and has among its objects the provision of novel compositions useful as feed for ruminant animals and novel methods for preparing the same. Further objects of the invention will be evident from the following description wherein parts and percentages are by weight unless specified otherwise.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The digestion of nitrogenous compounds by ruminant animals is a complex process involving two interrelated processes. In the first process microbial digestion occurs in the reticulum, rumen, and omasum; in the second, hydrolytic or enzymatic digestion occurs in the abomasum and intestines.
Most of the nitrogenous material ingested by ruminants fed natural feed consists of proteins. Although it is unusual for dietary protein to be completely degraded upon entering the rumen, these proteins are extensively hydrolyzed by rumen bacteria to their constituent amino acids, which are then rapidly deaminated to produce ammonia. This process wastes valuable amino acids required for growth because the so-produced ammonia, although used by microbes in part to resynthesize protein assimilated by the animal, is partly excreted. It is, therefore, desirable to reduce ruminal protein degradation and thereby increase the net absorption of amino acids in the intestines, which results in more efficient use of the proteinaceous feed material. Consequently, body growth, meat, milk, and animal hair production, and the like, requiring the synthesis of proteins from amino acids, are enhanced.
Methods are known in the art for protecting proteinaceous feed from breakdown within the rumen and increasing the net absorption of amino acids in the intestines. Heat treatment of the proteinaceous feed is effective, but substantial impairment of overall digestibility and loss of essential amino acids make the use of heat unsatisfactory. Similar difficulties have been encountered when the feed is chemically modified.
A particular process for protecting proteinaceous feed materials for ruminant animals is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,619,200 by Ferguson et al. (Ferguson). In the patented method a proteinaceous feed material is coated with a member selected from the group consisting of polymers of basic amino acrylate and methacrylate, basic vinyl monomers, and copolymers thereof.